HIGHLAND — Corner Canyon survived its toughest test of the season in rallying to take a 35-25 win over Lone Peak on Thursday.
A dominating second half performance fueled by two significant turnovers won it out for the Chargers, who haven’t lost a game since 2017.
“We definitely needed one of these games. Everyone needs these kind of games for a wakeup call.” — Corner Canyon receiver Cody Hagen
“We knew what (Lone Peak) is, especially upfront. They’re good,” said Eric Kjar about the Knights. “... So it was good for us to have to adjust. I’d like to see us adjust faster than what we did, but we (got there).”
Lone Peak jumped up 10-0 early before Jaxson Dart connected with Cody Hagen for an 80-yard touchdown pass toward the end of the first quarter. Another bomb to Hagen, this one from 52 yards out, gave the Chargers a 14-13 lead and seemingly some good momentum to enter into the half.
But enter Lone Peak standout, John Henry Daley, who forced a fumble in the end zone on a sack of Dart and then picked it up for a touchdown right before the half, giving the Chargers a rare deficit at the break, trailing 19-14.
“We knew we could execute better,” said Hagen of the team’s mindset during halftime. “There were just a few small things on the line that we knew we could fix.”
Watch replay: Corner Canyon 35, Lone Peak 25
Whatever Hagen and his teammates put together worked like a charm, as Corner Canyon took the opening second half possession 80 yards for a touchdown, taking a 21-19 lead. Yet again it was Hagen finding pay dirt, this time from 10 yards out on another strike from Dart.
“That was really big, and we talked a lot about that at the half,” Kjar said of his team’s scoring drive to open the second half. “We felt like we could take advantage of some of the things they were doing if we just executed.”
After the offense took the lead to set the tone, the defense followed and took charge by way of forcing two critical turnovers. The first came off a fumble recovery on a punt, and then another on an attempted run by the Knights. Both turnovers were turned into touchdowns with Corner Canyon building a commanding 35-19 lead as a result.
“Those were big turnovers that really got us going,” Kjar said.
“The defense played lights out,” Hagen added. “They were saving us. So props to them.”
With the win, Corner Canyon improves to 7-0 on the year and will next take on Westlake. Lone Peak drops to 6-1 with the loss and will look to rebound next week when taking on Skyridge.
Overall, Corner Canyon believes the challenge presented them on Thursday will prove beneficial the rest of the season.
“We definitely needed one of these games,” Hagen said. “Everyone needs these kind of games for a wakeup call.”